“Polycom understands the challenges faced by healthcare organizations today, and we’ve been improving communications in this industry for a number of years,” said Ron Emerson, director of Global Healthcare Markets for Polycom. “We provide a wide portfolio of solutions and services that meet healthcare providers’ needs, and we’re accelerating efforts with Polycom Open Collaboration Network (POCN) partners to offer our customers fully integrated end-to-end solutions that can help improve patient care and enable organizations to achieve greater efficiencies.”

The healthcare industry faces significant challenges, including healthcare provider shortages, an aging population with more than 70 million baby boomers, limited financial resources, remote and medically underserved areas, and rigorous continuing education requirements for certified healthcare professionals. To address these issues, Polycom provides unified communications (UC) solutions for the healthcare industry that address workflow, clinical needs and requirements for maintaining the highest level of patient care and privacy while optimizing resources. Polycom’s solutions for healthcare offer flexibility, scalability, durability, and mobility, all of which are key requirements in the medical industry.

“Polycom plays a pivotal role in creating a connected healthcare environment,” said Andrew R Watson, M.D., MLitt., medical director for the Center for Connected Medicine and vice president at UPMC. “Their work in telemedicine, conferencing, and other forms of communication fundamentally transforms the way providers see patients and interact with one another. Polycom’s technologies bring real cost efficiencies into the system while, also enabling high quality care.”

The Polycom connected healthcare demonstration at HIMSS10 exemplifies how seamless patient and caregiver communications can occur regardless of location, thereby improving patient outcomes and saving time and money for all involved. The demonstration illustrates a real-world scenario where a hospitalized patient communicates with healthcare providers both in the hospital and remotely via Polycom systems. Remote physicians are able to assess the patient, prescribe treatment and confirm that the course of treatment is being followed. One example is a telestroke scenario where Dr. Deborah A. Jeffries, Polycom director of healthcare markets, will evaluate the patient via video from one of two separate consultation areas. The technology solution highlights include:

Market-leading Polycom HDXTM telepresence systems leveraging the industry’s first delivery of H.264 High Profilevideo compression to deliver HD video from just 512 kbps for premium quality patient assessment, remote consultations, medical education and healthcare administration (including the Polycom Practitioner CartTM HDX) at a fraction of the average cost across the industry.

“We’re excited to be a part of the Polycom Connected Health demo at HIMSS10,” said Andrew Diamond, M.D. “Our innovative phone-centric solution for medical records, e-prescribing, and multi-office audiovisual communications seamlessly integrates with the open platform of the Polycom VVX 1500. Integrations such as this open up the market for new and innovative ways of communicating within the healthcare industry.”

Polycom’s integration efforts with its partners support Polycom’s Open Collaboration Network strategy, providing an open and interoperable collaboration solution that gives customers greater flexibility and investment protection for their UC environment. By working with leading unified communications platform providers, Polycom is able to deliver its productivity-enhancing and cost-saving telepresence, video and voice collaboration products as an integrated part of core unified communication environments, making the technologies easily accessible as part of the everyday workflow within a comprehensive solution that is easy to deploy and manage.

About PolycomPolycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM) is the global leader in telepresence, video, and voice solutions and a visionary in communications that empower people to connect and collaborate everywhere. Visit www.polycom.com for more information and follow us on Twitter @AllAboutPolycom.

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